During the hunting of big game animals, such as deer, elk, moose, bear, etc. with a bow and arrow, the game animal is usually not killed instantly after being struck with an arrow. Often the animal is still able to escape from the point of impact of the arrow by fleeing, thereby requiring the hunter to have to subsequently track the game animal. The hunter, in tracking the game animal, often uses the trail of blood left by the wound of the arrow as the primary way for tracking the game animal. The blood flows from the wound along the arrow shaft and drops onto the ground leaving a trail for the hunter to follow. However, when the game animal is fleeing the point of impact, the game animal will often break off a portion or portions of the arrow that protrudes from its body as it moves through trees or other brush. Of course, a portion of the arrow remains with the wounded animal after the protruding portion of the arrow snaps or breaks off. Before the arrow breaks off, as described above, a quantity of blood exits the animal by flowing along the length of the arrow protruding from the game animal to leave a blood trail for the hunter to follow. However, after the arrow is broken off, the blood trail can become scarce to the point of leaving no blood trail at all as the game animal's wound is closed by the fur, hide, fat and muscle tissue of the game animal, thereby reducing the amount of blood dropping to the ground, making it more difficult to, if not impossible to, track the wounded animal.
Several solutions have been attempted to make tracking the blood trail of the wounded game animal easier. U.S. Pat. No. 3,393,912 to De Lonais discloses a hunting arrow for tracking game hit by the arrow. The arrow is comprised of an imperforate rigid hollow shaft. The leading edge is provided with a broadhead. Behind the broadhead is a blood inlet means to permit blood to enter the hollow shaft. The trailing or rearward end is in communication with the hollow shaft and includes blood outlet means for discharging blood moving from the inlet to the outlet means. U.S. Pat. No. 2,909,372 to Neri is directed to an arrowhead with air openings between the blades that can be assembled to a shaft and that will cause sufficient bleeding to leave a blood trail to trace the wounded game. U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,463 to Repinski et al. discloses a humane hunting arrow designed to give the utmost amount of bleed-out possible in the shortest possible time. The arrow of this invention is comprised of an inner surface and an outer surface. The outer surface includes means formed thereon for facilitating the shearing of the shaft. These means may include a plurality of grooves formed on the inner or outer surface of the shaft. In a preferred embodiment, the broadhead and blade insert include a means for establishing a space between the animal tissue and the open end of the shaft to facilitate bloodflow thereinto. This space can be an aperture that permits the unrestricted flow of blood from the front to the rear portion of the arrow. The shaft is of relatively constant diameter and contains no diameter changes which serve as flow restrictions. The arrowhead is mounted on the shaft by means of a sleeve, and a broadhead is mounted to the sleeve.
Alternatively, U.S. Pat. No. 4,976,442 to Treadway discloses a technique for tracking a game animal by having a transmitter mounted in a hollow metal arrow. The transmitter is positioned within a notch in the arrow. The transmitter contains a barb which acts as an antenna and which lodges in an animal to terminally engage in the animal so that the animal may be tracked. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. Re. 33,470 to Boy et al discloses an arrow having a hollow shaft into which is inserted a RF transmitter for tracking either the arrow or the game into which the arrow is affixed.
The above attempts at tracking wounded game animals have several disadvantages. First, the designs that leave a blood trail for tracking do not work effectively if the arrow is broken off inside the game animal's body, which usually occurs, as any blood that could flow from the wound would likely be absorbed by the fur of the game animal. Second, the designs that use transmitters can be difficult to operate, expensive to manufacture and may easily malfunction or become ineffective if the arrow is broken off.
What is needed is an improved device to facilitate the tracking of a large game animal wounded by an arrow by permitting a hunter to follow a trail of blood left by the fleeing animal.